This page describes the workflow using the commands from the git-buildpackage package. Alternatively there is also git-dpm.

Upstream import methods

There are two main ways to import the upstream code into the debianized repository:

One can import upstream release tarballs into a Debian-specific repository. This creates one commit per release. This is generally done with the git-import-orig tool. This is the most general method, because it assumes ONLY that upstream is releasing tarballs.

If upstream is using git to manage their source, the debianization repository can live in a branch off of the main upstream tree. Clearly this can work only with some upstreams, but the big upside is that the relationship between the debianization and the upstream code is VERY clear. Patching and releasing are much more natural. Since the Debian APT repositories still use tarballs you still have to manage those with this setup, but the pristine-tar exists for that purpose.

There's also a third option, which is a combination of the two: git-import-orig --upstream-vcs-tag. This is useful primarily when the orig tarball is not identical to the upstream release tag, which can happen if for instance

the tarball was repacked (to remove non-DFSG pieces, for instance)

the script upstream uses to make tarballs makes changes (the autotools make dist does this in some projects)

Getting started

Importing upstream as tarballs

It is easiest to first create the first version of a package, outside of Git. Once this is done, you should import the package using the git-import-dsc tool. The directory in which it is called will be the parent directory of the new Git repository.

$ git-import-dsc /path/to/package_0.1-1.dsc

This will give output of its progress and make a few commits. Afterwards, you will have some new files and directories:

$ ls
package/
package_0.1-1.orig.tar.gz

Looking in the new repository shows git-buildpackage has done the following:

Imported the package files (but not debian/ directory) into the upstream branch

This has then been tagged upstream/0.1 where 0.1 is your package's version number

Imported the debian/ directory into master as well as upstream's files

Tagged the last commit as debian/0.1-1 as it assumes the package is finished.

Using the upstream repo

If upstream is already using git, simply make a branch for the debianization. The conventions for names of branches and tags are as in the case just described, so one can branch master off of the upstream release, and add the debian/ directory as a commit.

Further packaging workflow

Now you can work in the master branch to edit the package. Commit with:

$ git commit -a

and build the package with:

$ git-buildpackage

Once you have produced a release-ready package, you should tag it, in the following way:

$ git-buildpackage --git-tag

Make sure that your debian/changelog file is correct, as that is what will be used to create the tag. The tag will be named debian/0.1-2 where 0.1-2 is the Debian version.

Handling debian patches

The gbp-pq tool can be used to track patches in git, and to export/import them to/from the quilt series in debian/patches.

Upgrading to new upstream version

Importing upstream as tarballs

When a new upstream version comes out, use the git-import-orig tool to add it to the repository.

Using a debian/watch file (recommended)

$ git-import-orig --uscan

Using a tarball file

$ git-import-orig /path/to/new-upstream.tar.gz -u 0.2

where 0.2 is the new upstream version number.

If the upstream tarball is already in the form packagename_version.orig.tar.gz (E.g. package_0.2.orig.tar.gz), then the -u option is not required.

Using the upstream repo

If we're using the upstream repo, we can git fetch the new release tag into the repo, in the upstream branch. We need to git merge this branch into master, and to commit the new tarball with pristine-tar. The patches can be rebased with gbp-pq, and git itself can be used to resolve any conflicts that have been created.

Merging a debian-experimental branch into master for sid

Lets assume you have have the following branches:

upstream

latest upstream in development

upstream-1.5

upstream's 1.5 series, considered stable

master

branch for building packages for sid

debian-experimental

branch for building packages for experimental

You are importing each point release into upstream-1.5 and merging to master

You are merging each beta release (1.6~beta) into upstream and merging to debian-experimental

At some point, you want to move the work from debian-experimental to the master branch and release it to unstable.

First, it is necessary to make sure debian-experimental has everything correct in debian/* - maybe you committed something on master and didn't cherry-pick it to debian-experimental. You can compare the debian/ subtrees like this:

git checkout master
git diff debian-experimental debian

If necessary, cherry pick any changes onto debian-experimental. The next merge will obliterate everything on master and replace it with the contents of the debian-experimental branch. The only thing that is kept is debian/changelog because it needs to reflect the change history within sid and does not need to contain details of individual releases to experimental. Here is how we do it (make sure master is a clean workspace):

After doing this, it is strongly suggested that you inspect the merge with gitk and with git diff before you push to alioth or any other developer. For example,

git diff debian-experimental

invoked in master should only show the changelog, because everything else on master should now be identical to debian-experimental.

Conclusion

That is all to the basics of building packages with Git! I would recommend making copies of packages and trying out the tools on temporary repositories, to start with. Once you feel you have mastered it, there are other options that should be looked at.

Further options

pbuilder

To use pbuilder, you must simply change builder in either ~/.gbp.conf or /etc/git-buildpackage/gbp.conf to /usr/bin/git-pbuilder

/usr/bin/git-pbuilder can be edited to use additional options, such as --builddir and --debsign-k...

Signing tags

On calling either of the git-import-dsc or git-import-orig tools, the following options may be used:

--sign-tags

Whether to sign tags

--keyid=gpg-keyid

With what gpg key to sign tags with

pristine-tar

git-buildpackage also supports the use of pristine-tar, a new tool developed by Joey Hess to recreate identical tarballs from a small delta file and the files in the current directory.

If you enable pristine-tar, delta files are committed to a pristine-tar branch if you call git-import-dsc or git-import-orig. When you build the package using git-buildpackage, the exact tarball is regenerated using pristine-tar.

On calling either of the git-import-dsc or git-import-orig tools, the --pristine-tar option may be used. On calling git-buildpackage, the --git-pristine-tar option may be used. You may also enable the pristine-tar option /etc/git-buildpackage/gbp.conf.

running lintian after the build

Add this to ~/.gbp.conf :

postbuild = lintian -I $GBP_CHANGES_FILE && echo "Lintian OK"

running autopkgtest after the build

First configure an environment for adt (see autopkgtest docs, man adt-run) Then add this to your ~/.gbp.conf :